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Thursday, July 21, 2016

#FreeMilo

Milo Did Nothing Wrong - Breitbart: "In their email to Yiannopoulos, Twitter said he had been banned for “participating in or inciting targeted abuse of individuals.” And it’s true that Twitter’s terms of service do include a specific ban on abuse and targeted harassment. The question is – did Milo really break the rule?

Keep in mind that Twitter did nothing when Jerome Hudson, a black reporter for Breitbart News, was repeatedly called “coon” by a prominent rapper on the platform. It has also let abusive and racist tweets from Leslie Jones, the Ghostbusters actress who reported Milo to Twitter, stand.

So, either Twitter has a very high bar for what constitutes “abuse and harassment,” or it is simply enforcing its terms of service unevenly, giving some users a pass despite flagrant and shocking rule-breaking. Let’s be generous and assume, for a moment, that it has a high bar. What did Milo do to cross it?

Well, first he committed the mortal sin of criticising Leslie Jones’ comic performance in the new Ghostbusters movie, suggesting she was playing the victim instead of acknowledging criticism. “If at first you don’t succeed (because you’re work is terrible), play the victim. Everyone gets hate mail FFS.” Jones then informed Milo that he had been blocked and reported to Twitter, before going on to call one of his supporters a “racist b*tch” after he accused her of trying to limit free speech. Milo said her tweets were “barely literate.” Milo then jokes – to his followers, not to Jones – that he had been “rejected by yet another black dude” after Jones blocked him on Twitter. His final tweet on the subject included screenshots (later found to be doctored by trolls) of Jones engaging in racist abuse.

In other words, Milo has been permanently banned for little more than criticism, mild insults, and mockery. Meanwhile, Jerome Hudson’s abuser, who repeatedly called the black reporter a “coon,” is still on the platform. So is Leslie Jones, who, according to Twitter searches, has repeatedly engaged in racist rhetoric herself — as well the plain old abuse of calling her critics “b*tches,” “a**holes” and a range of other expletives."

WATCH: Leslie Jones Admits To Violating Twitter's Rules On Targeted Abuse - Breitbart: "...whilst the narrative currently being spun across many mainstream media outlets is that Jones is an innocent victim of racist online trolls, more evidence has arisen that suggests that Jones is in fact an aggressor who deliberately orders her followers to attack her “critics” on Twitter. Ironically, directing a targeted harassment campaign and ordering followers to attack another user is a violation of Twitter’s terms of service, and exactly what Yiannopoulos was accused of by Jones.

This was what Twitter eventually used as an excuse to ban Milo, even though there was no evidence whatsoever that Yiannopoulos ordered his followers to attack the actress. No major news organisation has yet picked up on Jones’ racist tweets about white people, or the fact that she was hitting back at “trolls” before Yiannopoulos ever got involved.

Appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers back in May, Meyers noted that Jones made the decision to “engage with critics” on the social media platform.” Jones responded by triumphantly declaring that she is “not no robot [sic] that sits behind a Twitter thing and tweets out, I’m a real person. I’ve got a Twitter account and yes if you call me a name I’m going to call you a name back.” In a not so subtle boast, Jones continued, saying that she didn’t “care how famous I am or how popular I am – if you call me a gorilla I’m going to call your mama one too.” More importantly, the Ghostbusters actress pointed out that she would “blow [anyone] up” who tweeted at her that she didn’t agree with, retweeting it “so all of my followers can see it and get on your punk…” Jones then trailed off before finishing her sentence."